The Indoor Kids: A Podcast Review

While its too early to crown The Indoor Kids my favorite, the newcomers out of Nerdist Industries have certainly made a case for themselves so far.

Similar to The Anytime Show With Dominic Dierkes, this is a relatively young podcast, still in the early evolutionary stages. So far there has already been a hosting change as well as a decently sized format shift.

The hosts are both conversational and hilarious, not dissimilar to the Nerdist podcast that started off Nerdist Industries. Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, have succeeded thus far in having friends be the guests each week, and it results in a very relaxed feel, similar to being around a group of friends, rather than the “Inside the Actor’s Studio” feel given from podcasts such as WTF with Marc Maron.

Nanjiani has done something novel (at least to me) in the podcast world, attempting to guide each episode back to a central theme, while also allowing it to meander into the occasional hilarious offshoot. One episode, for instance, revolves around Nanjiani, Gordon, and (fellow favorite podcast host contestant) Dominic Dierkes discussing bigotry in games, and how it is being slowly but surely evolved out by constantly improving storytelling techniques.

In addition to the fantastic hosts, the guests are generally equally amazing. They span different careers, reviewers, TV personalities, comedians, etc, but all mesh perfectly with the hosts’ personalities. From Dominic Dierkes to Paul Scheer to Tom Lennon, there has yet to be a guest I’ve not enjoyed.

If you’ve never played videogames and have absolutely zero emotional attachment to any videogame ever made, I wouldn’t expect you to enjoy The Indoor Kids to the extent I do. If you have ever had any emotions evoked by a videogame, however, you will love this podcast, its just that consistently good.

Upon discovering the podcast, I spent every second of my free time for the next 3 days huddled in my apartment, listening to every episode of The Indoor Kids I could get my hands on. If there’s a higher praise I can give something, I don’t know what it is.